Omaha daily bee., 1887-05-31
ALEXANDER DUMAS, SENIOR
An Interesting Sketch Of the Famous Au.
thor, Who Was of African Descent.
A MOST WONDERFUL CAREER.
His Early Struggles for Recognition
Of His Talent, and the Final
Triumphs OF His
Ambition.

Ambition.
Alexandra Dumas the elder was OF
African descent. He was born on July 81,
1902, in the village of Nilars. Cotcrcts. His
grandfather, Il Frenchman, the Marquis
de la Paillctric, was governor of San
Domingo, and married n ncgrcss named
Tiennctto Dumas. The marquis returned
to France, taking with him his son. n
bright mulatto, the father of the subject
of this sketch The young man took the
name of his mother and entered the
French army as private soldier, and
soon rose to the rank of general of u dI.
vision. He died, leaving his son with his
widowed mother to make the best of life
without money. Alexandra began his
studies under the Abbe Gregoirc, who, 1t
is said, found it impossible to teach him
arithmetic, and with great difficulty
taught him little Latin. This was due
to young Dumas craving for outdoor
sport, which caused HIM to neg.
lcct his books, and not to stupidity.
At the age of eighteen he began the
study of law in the Office of Il notary in
his native village Leuven, who was at
that time in exile, resided IN the village;
he formed the acquaintance OF Dumas
and, seeing that he was ambitious, ad-
viscd him to write dramas Dumas
thought it was a good idea, and straight
way applied himself In an incredibly
short time three dramas were produced,
and were offered for sale to the directors
of the Paris theatres and were rejected
by all. This did rot discourage Dumas,
however. His new acquaintance leuven,
returned to Paris, and Dumas was anX
ious to follow him. but the young author
was poor and could not pay the fare. lie
was determined, nevertheless, to see and
know the actors of Paris, so he planned
pedestrian expedition in copartnership
with n fellow clerk, who was also child
of impccuniosity with Il vaulting ambiti-
on, and both proceed to walk TO Paris.
Dumas and his partner carried each
gun, which they used to shoot game on
their way. They were successful at
shooting, and the game they brought
down they sold to game dealer, and
| thus earned money enough to pay for
| food and lodgi ring along their journey.
When Dumas entered the great city
| his friend Lcuven received him with
open arms and gave him ticket to hear
Talma, the then great actor;
! Dumas was specially privileged
| to 90 behind the scenes between the acts
| and converse with the actors. Iama saw
| him and at once pronounced him
| genius, and babe him return to his ma.
| tive village and enter his study, where
| the "angel of poesy' would find him.
| Acting upon this advice Dumas retired to
| the village where he was born, ana con-
| tnued writing dramas. He returned
| shortly aftcrward TO Paris. He had
| little money which his mother gave him
! He had letters of recommendation to
some of the old generals of the empire,a
few of whom received him coldly, but in
General Foy he found y warm friend.
The general introduced him to the duke
| of Orleans, VINO made him one OF his
| secretaries and gave him salary OF
| /, 200 francs. White employed as secre-
| tary to the duke, Alexandra applied him
| self to the study of Shakespeare, Scott,
| Goethe, and Schiller, and soon began
| again to write plays, some of which were
| brought out by several managers of thea
| tres. His success rs n writer seemed as
surcd to him, and he wrote for his mother
| to come to Paris, and the couple took up
their residence in humble apartments in
the Fauoourg ST. Denis. He is said to
| have been dutlfll son.
| For time after this. contrary to his
expectations, his success was very poor.
He finally wrote II tragedy that pleased
the director general of the theatres, who
| promised to bring it out but before this
was done, the director left for the east,
| and the person who took his place re-
fused to have the play brought out, Du-
| mas complained; the censor asked him
what he did for a living. Dumas re.
ferrcd him to the duke of Orleans and
| his / 200 francs, whcreupon he was told
| to stick to his situation.
| Dumas's next play was entitled Henry
| ILL.," and was brought out under the pro
| lection of the duke of Orleans 1t was
very successful, and he received for it the
sum of 80, 900 francs. This was quite 10
| lift for Dumas, and he, in consequence,
moved from his humble lodgings and
took up his abode in the rue de l. Univer-
sity, where he lived in elegant style,
spending his money as freely as i came, ''
brought forward "Christine," play
that was once rejected, which also had a
big success. After the French revolution
he brought out his drama OF Napoleon
| Bonapartc' and that of "Charles Nll;'
then followed other plays, which had in
! Simultaneous success.
| The larger Dumas's income grew the
more extravagantly he lived: He built
| at st. German his famous Villa Monte
| Cristo. He brought to France two arch
itects from Algiers to decorate, at great
| expense, one room in the villa after the
| fashion Of the east, and put them under
Obligations in the form of a binding con
| tract not to execute similar design in
| Europe, There were twelve reception
rooms in his house. He kept birds, par.
rots, monkeys, and n fine breed of horses
From ls45 to 1Si6>he issued sixty volumes
which sfound ready market at enormous
profits. A theater was built especially
for the production of his plays. He Wis.
tied Spain and Africa, taking with him
his son Alexandra, ir., who now lives in
Paris. Previous to his death Dumas OK
pressed desire to visit the United States
but he did not like to be reminded by
prejudced minds that he was descend
| ant of an African.
Apparently Texas has genuine case
| of wild man. lie appeared perfectly
| N god and GllSlnQ